God Created Us

The point: Come out of the woods of hopeless confusion by finding God's directive in Scripture.

The 'woods' metaphor represents the hopeless confusion and inability to answer life's most basic questions that many people experience.

And so those are my three purposes in dealing with this subject today, that under God, some of you may come out of the woods, others of us who are out of the woods may look back with greater appreciation for that deliverance, and then with greater clarity be able to point the way. And so I hope that this study in the scriptures will be God's directive to get you out of the woods, first of all, to show some of you the way out of the woods, others of us who are out of the woods, others of us who are out of the woods may look back with greater appreciation for that deliverance, and then with grea...

1:05 - 1:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues that the 'within' approach assumes omniscience, which humans lack, making their conclusions about life's meaning erroneous. He illustrates this with an analogy of a…

A bushman, unfamiliar with modern technology, misinterprets a diesel locomotive as a 'devouring monster,' illustrating how limited human observation without full facts leads to erroneous conclusions about life's meaning.

And that's the problem, you see, when the philosopher looks at man, considers him considers his world and says this is what he is hears for, this is the meaning of the world, he's assuming something he's got no right to assume. Let me illustrate, suppose we took the fella out of the bush, down there perhaps some tribal group in South America. All he has ever seen in the way of any kind of of a mechanical means of conveyance is a little cart that maybe is pulled by a little donkey. And all of a sudden, we transport him by jet airplane.

8:10 - 8:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Man is a qualitatively different creature from anything else that God made. Now until I get hold of that, and that grips me, I have no basis for religion, for morality, no basis for anything in life.

Comparing dog food (qualitatively similar) to filet mignon (qualitatively different) illustrates that man is of a completely different order than animals, not just a variation.

That's why our generation is in the woods, because it doesn't know this most simple fact. Man is qualitatively different from all the other creatures. Now what I mean by qualitatively different, he's something of a completely different order. When you buy dog food, you may have some dog food that's 50% horse meat and 30% beef scraps and 10% something else, and there's something else that may have the percentage a little bit rearranged, but qualitatively it's dog food.

17:39 - 18:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first implication of being made in God's image is the capacity to know God, to exist in conscious, intelligent communication with Him. He illustrates this with the picture of…

The image of God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden illustrates the intimate, conscious communication and communion man was created to have with God.

And then we read down in verse 15, and the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And then the picture in Genesis 3, when it speaks of the Lord God, verse 8, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Apparently, this was something that God had begun to establish as a pa...

20:30 - 21:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What the appetite is for food, that's what the soul is with reference to God. Man was made to know God. And you can know sooner, you can know more quickly, satisfy man without the deep, intimate knowledge of God than you…

The act of lovers or friends walking together symbolizes intimate friendship and heart-to-heart communion, further illustrating the relationship God intended with humanity.

What is a more touching picture of intimate friendship, of heart-to-heart communion, than exists between a couple of people who take a walk together? This is what lovers do. They like to walk together. They may not say a thing, but they're sharing as they walk.

21:11 - 21:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that true humanity is found in knowing God, not in self-liberation from rules or 'medieval concepts'.

The analogy of a stomach not being made to digest diamonds, but diamonds made for the eye's appreciation, illustrates that the soul is made for God, and nothing else can satisfy it.

That they may know thee, the only true and living God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Was your stomach made to digest diamonds? I don't know anybody wealthy enough to put this experiment. No, you see, diamonds were made to be appreciated by what?

22:04 - 22:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Approach questions about life's purpose from the perspective that you were made to live with intimate knowledge of God and in submission to His will.

An airplane deciding to fly itself without a pilot illustrates the destruction and chaos that result when man attempts to rule himself apart from God's governance.

This has something to do with the very purpose for which God made him. Man was no more made to rule himself than an airplane is made to fly itself. And if that airliner on which I get tomorrow to go to Canada for a couple of days of ministry decided between here and Toronto that it was tired of having a pilot sit in the seat and pull the stick back and forward and turn the wheel, that it got tired of electronic signals coming in and guiding it in its proper path, that it was cramping its style, and all its power in its engines, and all its movement in its controls, and it was just about sick a...

26:04 - 26:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Approach questions about life's purpose from the perspective that you were made to live with intimate knowledge of God and in submission to His will.

The story of an airline crash caused by an electrical short fixing controls illustrates how a plane ceasing to be under intelligent control leads to destruction, paralleling man's moral chaos when not under God's control.

And this is what has happened on several occasions. Some of you remember back about six or seven years ago that terrible airline crash when the airliner went down into the marshes there off Kennedy Airport. The problem was, and they became aware of this after much investigation, that there was a little short in the electrical circuit, and the circuit that sent the impulse to one of the hydraulic pumps that operates the wing surfaces. The surfaces are so big that they can't operate them manually.

26:58 - 27:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Undergird your parental guidance with biblical truth, showing children that God made them a certain way and has prescribed how they are to conduct themselves.

Matthew Henry's quote about God taking woman from man's rib (not foot or head) illustrates the intended relationship of love and subjection, not trampling or ruling.

Therefore, he's saying the woman has not found her true place according to creation. Unless it's that place in subjection to the man, not under his foot, as Matthew Henry so beautifully said. God didn't take the woman from man's foot to be trampled on. He didn't take the woman from man's head to rule him, but he took the woman from under his heart, from his rib, to be held close in love, to be held in subjection under his head.

41:20 - 41:52 Read in full sermon